How I fell in love with Bubble Tea

I have been so excited to start this series but before I do, I should probably start with some context on how I came to fall in love with all things bubble tea and what it even is!

Bubble tea is a Taiwanese flavoured milk or fruit drink that can be customised with different toppings, the most popular being small blackish brown balls called tapioca. Don’t worry; it’s not the same as the porridge stuff that resembles semolina. You’d be surprised to know that tapioca actually comes from a plant!

The first ever time I tasted bubble tea was summer of 2011. One of my friends suggested we go to Portobello Road and that’s where I came across Bubbleology, which was new to me, but if you’ve been to Portobello, you’ll know it’s the spot for original quirky startups. Anyway we tried this so called ‘bubble tea’ and I remember thinking it was alright but nothing special.

I don’t think I tried bubble tea again unitil summer 2013 when I went to Cali to visit an old friend. She had a Japanese roommate and for her, buying bubble tea was an everyday thing. I went with her one day to the nearest shop on her campus and was amazed by the taste, quality and price compared to that of Bubbleology in the UK. Since then, I’ve kinda made a hobby out of finding new places to buy & try bubble tea, exploring the variety of flavours and toppings that exist.

Bubble tea is definitely more well known now than it ever has been so I thought it would be cool to review the places I have tried and give them ratings based on: taste, variety of flavours, variety of toppings, tapioca quality, price and overall experience out of ten. Hopefully this might make you open to trying somewhere new or just trying a new drink in general. Please let me know of your fav bubble tea spots in the UK and beyond in the comments and I hope you enjoy the series.